Raising chickens 2.0: no more coop and run!

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Hello fellow chicken enthusiasts,

If you would like to attend this event, please register at http://urbanecology.brownpapert...http://img1.meetupstatic.com/img/clear.gif . Its only $5 for the first person and $1 for each additional person, so sign up and bring as many friends as you can!!! We want as many people to attend as possible!

Listen to how Paul Wheaton is rethinking how to raise urban chickens. Like always, it's going back to traditional methods or what our grandparents did.

Check out his website. Here is his intro and there is more info at his website. http://www.richsoil.com/raising-chickens.jsp

Paul will be speaking at the Urban Ecology Extravaganza hosted by the Institute of Urban Ecology. Event details below:

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Don’t miss this revolutionary event! In honor of the upcoming SoCal Permaculture Convergence, IUE is proud to be partnering with several Los Angeles based organizations to bring you this once-in-a-lifetime event. Come learn from some of LA’s leading urban ecology experts and from internationally recognized Permaculturalist Paul Wheaton. To encourage everyone to come and learn, this event is ALMOST FREE!!!! Sign up a big group and pay nearly nothing to attend. (http://urbanecology.brownpapertickets.com/)

Event Schedule

------Paul Wheaton of permies.com------
10:30am
No Coop, No Run Chicken Raising
Why spend the money to build a chicken coop and run, when you can have healthier, happier chickens without them? Paul explains his super simple backyard chicken raising techniques.
1pm to 2pm Lunch provided by Oh Happy Days! Natural Foods & Cafe

------Marco Barrantes of La Loma Development Co------
2pm
Permaculture in the Big City
How does Permaculture apply to life in the concrete jungle? Hear this Permaculture designer and entrepreneur speak about healing our cities, creating jobs, and transforming LA’s food culture.

------Darren Butler of EcoWorkshops.com------
3:30pm to 5pm
Systems Gardening
Does gardening have to be such hard work? Learn how to work with Nature’s systems to make your garden easier to manage and more productive than ever before.

------Paul Wheaton on Irrigation Free Gardening at Armory Center for the Arts------
6pm to 8pm
Paul will discuss Permaculture strategies to eliminate the need for irrigation in our gardens. An especially relevant talk given our climate here in Southern California.

------Day/Time------
Sunday, March 3rd
10am to 8pm

------Location------
Daytime Events
@Institute of Urban Ecology
3896 N Fair Oaks Avenue,
Altadena , CA

Evening Paul Wheaton Lecture
@Armory Center for Arts
145 N Raymond Ave
Pasadena, CA 91103

------Registration (click here to register (http://urbanecology.brownpapertickets.com/))------
$5 for 1st ticket
$1 each add’tl ticket

------Sponsoring Organizations------
Institute of Urban Ecology
RIPE Altadena
La Loma Development
EcoWorkshops.com
Oh Happy Days Natural Foods Market
Whole Foods Market, Pasadena
Whittier Backyard Farms
Arroyo SECO Network of Time Banks
Root Simple

After years and years of scraping/shoveling/scrubbing chicken poop I now have a system where I don't scrape/shovel/scrub any chicken poop.

After years and years of selling meat/eggs for just a hair more than I paid for the feed, I've almost eliminated feed costs.

After years and years of not being able to take a few days away from the chickens, I now have a system where I can go more than a week.

At any given time when raising chickens I thought what I was doing at that time was "the best" only later to learn of something I like better. Now, when somebody asks about my opinion on the way they are raising chickens, I find myself tongue-tied. I see their chickens standing in shit all day, eating feed made from grains (and other things) considered too awful for human consumption. The feed is often medicated and loaded with vitamins and minerals that somebody thinks is good for the average chicken - it has to be because what the chicken really wants to eat is not available to the chicken. Rather than say "Ick" I want to paint a picture of something healthier that would be easy to do. What I have to say cannot squeeze into a minute. And there is so much that has to all come together just right, that without a script I doubt I can pull it off. So this is my feeble attempt at that script. To try and express my opinion on what I think is a better way of raising chickens in one big gob.

To build a foundation, I need to first explore the other ways that I'm aware of raising chickens. There are a lot of techniques out there. I've tried nearly all of them. I've visited a lot of farms and a lot of city coops. I've had a lot of people ask me what I think of their approach. And usually my answer is not the answer they were hoping for.